Former President Trump joked about fleeing to Russia after his bond was set at $200,000 in the Georgia case over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump s…
(Apologies for yet another Trump post.)
But given his court appearance Thursday, just funny how he'd start joking about this. I wonder if he actually would, and what would follow. I mean, how would he try to spin it?
If bail is supposed to be a disincentive to flee, what effect is $200k supposed to have on a "billionaire"? A pauper would get that high a bond in this case, and no pauper has access to a private jet.
We need Swedish day fine systems for all levels of government.
If a fine costs a month's wages for someone working minimum wage, it should scale up and still cost a month's wages for people who earn more.
That said, cash bail is an incredibly stupid system. If someone is a flight risk, put an anklet on them. If there's a sincere belief they may flee the jurisdiction, then they need to be deprived of their freedom to travel. And if they aren't any kind of flight risk get them the fuck out of jail. The punishment should not precede the trial.
We have the same system in Finland, and it also accounts for income for capital gains. It does not, however consider assets or the increase of value in assets except during years when assets are sold (when the increase in value is converted to income).
Still, a better system than fixed fines.
We don't have the concept of cash bail and suspects and convicts do occasionally flee. It does mean their belligerence is no longer a direct threat to our society, which is something.
He isn’t much of a flight risk. He doesn’t seem to have much cash. He has wealth. Mainly in properties which isn’t easily converted and would raise red flags.
He also has SS protection which prevents him from fleeing.
He also has SS protection which prevents him from fleeing.
Really? The same Secret Service that was told the Inspector General wanted to review all their messages around January 6, and then all the Secret Service messages for a two-day period surrounding January 6 were mysteriously deleted?
The same Secret Service that made Mike Pence sound like a Criminal Minds victim when he said: "I'm not getting in the car, Tim,” Pence said. “I trust you, Tim, but you're not driving the car. If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off. I'm not getting in the car.”
If his freedom is on the line he would flee. As for properties, he doesn't need to sell them immediately or I don't think he even need to sell them. It's not like he is alone with it.
The Secret Service was caught treading water for him in some crimes.
Is the Secret Service actually empowered to stop a former official (not in office) from doing anything? It's my understanding former office holders can waive SS protection, so I would presume compliance with SS recommendations or orders is purely optional. Of course there's nothing stopping SS from phoning Jack Smith to let them know Trump just boarded a plane to Moscow....
How wild that would be. Withdrawal all his campaign donations and just up and go to Russia. He could put a spin on it and make his base extremely upset and violent because the evil left forced him to flee because it's all rigged.
They should have never allowed a bond to be set. He should have just been kept in jail until the trial. Any of us normies would have had to...
Who says he has to forfeit campaign donations? He can just have it all funneled to some Swiss bank account or Bitcoin. His followers are total morons and will gladly send whatever money they have, wherever he's located.
That would be pretty tricky since he is an ex-president. But could the government really risk letting an ex-president and their information fall into another countries hands?
This probably isn't of interest in the GA indictment in which Trump is commenting about, but I'd have to imagine Jack Smith is taking notice that a criminal defendant accused of mishandling classified information is joking about flying to Russia. It's plausible that Trump has classified information at other properties. While less plausible as Trump is a total dope, it's technically possible he's got classified information digitized and ready to go with him to Russia. This should be setting off alarm bells everywhere. Anyone else with four major indictments with 91 charges would have been locked up in jail by now.
I mean, him running away to Russia would split Republicans even more. He'd still have his dedicated followers, but it would cause even more of a fight regarding DeSantis and others.
I'm trying to decide which would be more chaotically beneficial for the rest of us, him going to jail or fleeing.
Good question. I'm not sure how truly attached his followers are to him, but if they are really that tied to him and his media ecosystem, I think it would be worse for him to be in Russia. It brings a whole new loyalty into the mix with those folks.
Their position on Russia is one of the more ridiculous contortions for Trump fanatics. They claim to hate communism and love freedom and yet their daddy sold out to the Kremlin so they have to find ways to act like they wanted us to be Russian apologists all along.
The crazy thing is that the reason why communism sucks is that (at least currently) it requires totalitarianism to implement it. And that comes with a lot of issues. Communism in theory looks like utopia. Russia no longer is communist, but it absolutely is totalitarian, but according to them that's somehow good.
Also what I noticed is that those tankies on lemmygrad, aren't really pro communism, they are pro totalitarianism.
Putin doesn't like him. He's nothing more than a useful idiot. The only purpose he serves is to sow discord among Americans, who despite all evidence to the contrary, firmly believe that Trump is "on their side" whatever that side happens to be. Usually some batshit opinion about abortions or "the libs".
Sure, but if he's ineligible, then all that does is split the Republican vote and hand the election to the Democrats on a silver platter. Crisis averted.
Putin has no use for Trump as a free person. At best, he might even use him in some sort of "extradition trade" with the US, after this whole Ukraine war thing blows over.
There’s a long tradition in diplomatic history of monarchs letting deposed monarchs from hostile countries live in their state in luxury. At worst it’s a lingering thumb in the eye of the country that has to continually acknowledge that there’s a deposed king who is living it up abroad whom their government cannot touch. At best it sets up a bud to re-take the throne at some future point, with the deposed king now completely loyal and beholden to the foreign king and his government.
Trump was exposed to large amounts of highly classified information as president for four years, and has shown a willingness to sell it to the highest bidder. He'd 100% throw the US under the bus to stay in Russia, and his supporters will deny he ever did such a thing just as they deny he publicly called for storming the Capital or as they deny the current charges against him
Oh having the "true" leader of the US in exile would be insanely useful to Putin. Base goes crazy, GOP in disarray, propaganda tool within Russia on perils of democracy etc., bump him off if he kicks off & blame NATO (or whoever).
A person out on bail joking about fleeing the country would literally mean a direct "go to jail now" card for anyone in any western judicial system I know.
How the fuck is that not happening in the US guys? That's absurd.
I think he's going to pull some stunt on Thursday, but I don't think he'll flee. He'll only do that if all his legal challenges fail and it looks like he'll be convicted.